Posts Tagged ‘Egbert Myjer’

That the celebration of International Women’s Day can be more than words is shown by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in today’s announcement that 5 of the 7 new members added to the Commission are women. They are: Dame Silvia Cartwright (New Zealand), Professor Sarah Cleveland (USA), Justice Martine Comte (France),, Ms Mikiko Otani (Japan), and Justice Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza (Uganda). Also elected were former ICJ SG Mr Wilder Tayler (Uruguay) and Justice Willy Mutunga (Kenya).

Dame Silvia Cartwright (New Zealand) was Governor-General of New Zealand from 2001-2006 and the first woman appointed to the High Court in New Zealand. She was also a judge on the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Amongst others, she has the following honours: Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) and Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (PCNZM). Dame Cartwright has served on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and played a role in drafting the optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Professor Sarah Cleveland (USA) is the Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights and faculty director of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School. She is currently a member of the UN Human Rights Committee, the US member of the Venice Commission, and former counsel to the US State Department legal adviser. She also serves as coordinating reporter of the American Law Institute’s project on the Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States.

Justice Martine Comte (France) has been a judge in France for more than 30 years, including having served as President of the Orléans Court of Appeal from 2011-2014. Prior to this her judicial career has been extensive and amongst other roles she has served as President of the Pontoise Tribunal of First Instance, President of the Bourgoin-Jallieu Court of First Instance and as Head of the Regional Administrative Department of Paris. She has also served as an Inspector of Judicial Services. Justice Comte is an Officer of the National Order of Merit and Knight of the Légion d’Honneur.

Justice Willly Mutunga (Kenya) served as Chief Justice & President of the Supreme Court, Republic of Kenya, 2011- 2016. He was the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the Maldives, 2016-17. He is an active member of the Justice Leadership Group. He has a previous career as an academic and in human rights movements in East Africa and Canada, and served as Executive Director of the Eastern Office of the Ford Foundation, 2004-2011.

Ms Mikiko Otani (Japan) Mikiko Otani is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (2017-) and a former Chair of the Committee on International Human Rights of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Prior to being elected as a member of the CRC, she was actively involved in the reporting process for Japan under the CRC and the CEDAW, representing NGOs.

Justice Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza (Uganda) is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda. Prior to joining the Court, she served on Uganda’s Constitutional Court for two years. Before joining the Judiciary, Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs at Makerere University, Uganda, where she was also a Professor of Law. She is an author of law textbooks currently in use as reference texts in East African Law Schools.

Mr Wilder Tayler (Uruguay) is a Director of the National Institution of Human Rights and Ombudsman’s Office in Uruguay. He was Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists from 2008-2017. Between 2007 and 2014 he was a member and Vice-Chairperson of the UN Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture. Mr Tayler was Legal Director of Human Rights Watch from 1997 to March 2007 and before that he worked with Amnesty International as Director of the Americas Programme and a Legal Advisor.

On Thursday, 20 November 2014, the International Service for Human Rights(ISHR) celebrates its 30th anniversary with the launch and discussion of two important legal reports:

The first is a memorandum of advice on the legal obligations of the Human Rights Council, its President and Bureau to combat reprisals prepared by Sir Nicolas Bratza and Prof Egbert Myjer(both formerly of the European Court of Human Rights – Egbert Myjer portrayed here on the left), together with the leading international law firm Freshfields. This is indeed a crucial area for the future of the whole human rights system as argued consistently in this blog : https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/reprisals/]

The second study is a comparative research report on the recognition and protection of human rights defenders under national law.

The panelists are:

Sir Nicolas Bratza, report author and former President of the European Court of Human Rights

Maryam Al-Khawaja, Bahraini human rights defender

Reine Alapini-Gansou, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

The debate is moderated by Phil Lynch, Director, International Service for Human Rights

The event takes place in Room IX of the Palais des Nations, Geneva, from 15h00 to 16h15. The legal briefing is followed by ISHR’s 30th anniversary reception.

This blog tries not to keep track of all the personal appointments in the human rights movement – that would be impossible – but the additions to the Board of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) in Geneva announced on 30 May 2013 are too impressive to leave unmentioned: Read the rest of this entry »

Magamed Abubakarov, a Russian human rights lawyer specialized in terrorist cases in the North-Caucasus, will receive the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2013. Magamed Abubakarov will accept the award on 31 May at the end of a seminar called ‘Lawyers controlled, independence at stake?’ in Amsterdam. Read the rest of this entry »

As of today one can also nominate for the Lawyers for Lawyers Award a lawyer, or a group of lawyers, who work to promote the rule of law and human rights in an exceptional way and who have been threatened, obstructed or in any other way hindered because of their work as a lawyer. An additional criterion is that this lawyer, or group of lawyers, may benefit from the publicity and recognition of the Lawyers for Lawyers Award.

The Lawyers for Lawyers Award, organised by the Netherlands-based NGO with the same name, will be presented for the second time in Amsterdam on 23 May 2013. An independent jury, consisting of Heikelien Verrijn Stuart, Theo van Boven, Egbert Myjer and Els Swaab, will decide which lawyer will receive the award. The prize consists of a donation of €10.000. Anyone can submit a nomination, but a lawyer or group of lawyers cannot nominate themselves. The closing date for submission of nominations is 15 February 2013.

Only nominations done on the website will be taken into consideration. The nomination form is available here and other information is available here.